[BN] the know

Closed Blush Lounge will put items on auction block

The Blush Nightclub & Lounge, located on Delaware Avenue near Delavan Avenue, is holding an auction after losing its liquor license. A fight and stabbing occurred there in February. Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News

Bar stools, bistro tables, beer coolers and some very large flat-screen TVs from the former Blush Nightclub & Lounge on Delaware Avenue will go on the auction block next Wednesday.

The establishment was previously the site of the failed One Sunset restaurant that embroiled Mayor Byron W. Brown’s administration in scandal. For years before that, it was a popular bar called the Locker Room.

The 3-year-old Blush, which had been seeking to transition from a club that hosted live entertainment and special events to a full-service restaurant, abruptly closed after the State Liquor Authority suspended its liquor license last month amid neighborhood controversy. The club had been the scene of a fight and a stabbing in February.

Cash Realty & Auctions will sell a host of equipment from the Gates Circle-area restaurant at 1389 Delaware Ave., starting at 10 a.m., with a preview scheduled for 8:30 a.m.

An investigation by The Buffalo News and an audit by former City Comptroller Andrew Sanfilippo in 2009 found that the restaurant received $160,000 in city loans and grants from the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. and Erie County Industrial Development Agency, even after a BERC loan committee comprised of bankers had recommended against it.

One Sunset closed in October 2008, with a net loss of $170,000. More than $90,000 of the funding was later unaccounted for, while $39,000 in inventory and furniture went missing.

Blush was owned and operated by Ronald Brantley, while the building has been owned by Kevin Brinkworth Sr. for more than 30 years. Neither could be reached to comment.

Later this month, Cash Realty will also conduct an unrelated onsite auction of the equipment and real estate from Pumpernick ’N Pastry on July 29. The bakery, located at 2055 Clinton St. in Buffalo, at Pierce Street, is still open for business but will close July 20.

The auction will start with the property itself, a 6,300-square-foot brick building, with 31 parking spaces, on 0.34 acres. Cash will then proceed to auction the equipment, piece by piece, including ovens, tables and chairs, refrigerated and other display cases, work tables, slicers, mixers, bowls, fryers, an icing conveyor and other kitchen and office equipment.